‘Logo saga’ last straw for DA councillor

Politics / 7 March 2014, 12:37pm

Warda Meyer

Ravensmead ward councillor Freddie Kearns said he was sitting in a council meeting last week and made a conscious decision to leave the DA as he was no longer prepared to lie for the party. Photo: Brendan Magaar

Cape Town - A DA city councillor has given up his position and defected to the Patriotic Alliance, saying the DA is merely using “coloureds and blacks” for their votes while neglecting the poor.

Ravensmead ward councillor Freddie Kearns said he was sitting in a council meeting last week and made a conscious decision to leave the party as he was “no longer prepared to lie” for the DA.

The DA confirmed Kearns’s resignation, but vehemently denied his “unfounded” claims against the party.

Gayton McKenzie and his business associate, Kenny Kunene, founded the PA last year to pursue an ambitious plan to unseat the DA in the province.

Styling itself as the “new radical force” focusing on the needs of the poor, the PA said it would “revive” coloured communities and reclaim the Western Cape.

Kearns said on Thursday that the city’s “logo saga” was the final straw.

“They basically forced us to vote on the issue. They said this logo would cost R300 000, but when you look at the final cost of having to change everything, buildings, branding, cars and stationery, it would be more like millions,” he said.

Kearns said the exercise was a waste of money which could have been better spent on projects for the poor.

“The DA is just using the coloured vote, afterwards they discard our people. When the masses come in their thousands to complain to the DA, they are ignored,” he said.

Kearns said that for years he had been in the DA’s inner circle where discussion was only about certain communities, but nothing about the poorer communities.

He said he chose the PA because of its vision for the youth.

DA provincial chairman Anton Bredell said he wished Kearns well in his new endeavours, adding that he rejected his attack on the DA with the “necessary contempt it deserves”.

He said Kearns had always been happy in DA ranks and had never raised any concerns or problems in DA forums.